Cutting the seed heads off my Amsonia is the worst gardening job of the season. And I did that job today. What makes this the worst gardening job of the season is the sap hidden in those branches. It looks like ordinary, white glue but its stickier than glue and leaves a stain on whatever it gets on. I know this from experience. So every year, I put on the same long pants and long-sleeved shirt that I wear for just this occasion. No sense ruining more gardening clothes with … [Read more...] about The Worst Gardening Job of the Season
perennials
Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do
What do you mean, I didn't plant this? This is none other than the nicest clump of fleabane, (probably Erigeron annuus), a common weed, that I've ever grown. It's blooming in the garden, acting for all the world like it belongs there, like it was I who planted it. I will let it go for now. It's kind of pretty. Plus, there are for more egregious weeds to pull before I yank this out. But I shall not let it go to seed! (Much) Elsewhere in the garden there are ox-eye daisies, … [Read more...] about Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do
Keeping Track of Plants
Tucked in a little triangle of ground between the house and a little path of pavers I made to get to the hose spigot, I found some ice plants, Delosperma, blooming the other day. I know I did not buy these but recall getting some as trial plants. I did a quick search through my email and I found that in 2016, I indeed got some Delosperma to trial, but I kind of think I planted those in the back garden somewhere. If this one in the picture is one of those, then it is a Jewel of Desert® … [Read more...] about Keeping Track of Plants
Colchicums Report On Time
I love being on time, which means being just a few minutes early. I do not like the opposite of being on time, which is being late.So I am happy to see the colchicums are right on time, maybe a tiny bit early.They are lovely flowers. The foliage comes up in the spring and dies back by mid-summer. My recollection is the foliage came up good and strong this past spring so this nice clump of flowers should not be surprising.Most of my colchicums were sent to me by Kathy from Cold Climate … [Read more...] about Colchicums Report On Time
Candy Lilies
Years and years ago, going back to the beginnings of this current garden, I purchased seeds for a flower called candy lilies.At the time I bought the seeds, the candy lily was considered an intergeneric hybrid, a cross between two plants from two different genera. You don't find those very often, for a variety of reasons!Then both parent plants were reclassified by the plant taxonomists and both ended up in the Iris genus. So now I've just got a regular ol' hybrid, probably Iris x … [Read more...] about Candy Lilies
My Old Neighbors
This Allium 'Millenium' will always remind me of our next-door neighbors when I was a kid. Not because they grew this particular variety of Allium—it was introduced in 1990, long after I'd left home—but because their son called me up one day and asked if I wanted a few clumps of it. He had planted it in a container at his mom's retirement apartment, and when he switched over the planting from summer to fall, as one does, he decided the ornamental allium might be nice for someone to plant … [Read more...] about My Old Neighbors
